Yes No Questions Speech Therapy

Fade Support For Simple Questions

Speech Therapy Technique:Helping Toddlers & Preschoolers Answer Yes/No Questions|Build Verbal Skills

Ask Do you want_____ more often for more items that are preferred and undesired . Start each practice without support by aksing the question without a visual gesture or spoken model. Make sure you wait long enough before repeating questions or offering support as kids need time to process and respond.

If your child responds accurately with a yes or no signal or spoken word, awesome! Have a praise party!

If your child responds inaccurately or uses their old response, start offering some support again in that moment, by using your visual gesture for example, to remind them.

Once your child has demonstrated consistent success with the simple question Do you want_____? without support form you, add variety to your questions, using different question forms.

Practice Yes With Do You Want: : : : : : :

Offer your child an item you know they want. Lets use a snack as an example.

Ask Do you want crackers? as you point to the crackers or hold them out.

As your child reaches for the crackers as if to say yes, Show a gestures for yes and say the word yes with emphasis to help you child look and listen more closely to the word. Then give your child the item.

Practice again with a preferred item in this same way, offering support at first and then less support. Less support might look like you asking Do you want crackers? while holding out the crackers and then just nodding or using a thumbs up without saying the word, giving your child a chance to copy your movement or use it as a hint to say the word yes.

Once your child demonstrates consistent success answering yes with little or no support from your gestures or models, add some chances to practice no.

At Home Speech Therapy Activity For Teaching Yes Or No Questions: Snack Time Choices

Materials:

A variety of snack options, some preferred and some not . Ideally small amounts of about 6 snack items.

Pro tip: It can be fun to offer small amounts of various items in a muffin tin, instead of a plate for a new variation.

Set-up:

Offer your child their snack with just a small amount of 1 preferred item. They will likely want more soon, so be ready with other snacks prepared and ready to grab. I recommend at least 6 options to work through, but you can definitely do this activity with less.

What to do:

Read your childs cues for when they are wanting more snack/still hungry. Then offer 1 item with consistent phrasing of Do you want ____?

If they say yes, offer them a small amount of that item.
If they say no, acknowledge that and offer a small amount of something else.
If they dont answer at all, ask again. If they still dont answer, model what you think their answer is, and offer accordingly or move on.

You are offering a smaller than typical portion to give more opportunities to communicate about their preferences. If you offer a full portion of goldfish crackers at first, then you only get to ask about goldfish crackers once. But if you just give them a few, then you can ask if they want more a few times, meaning you asked with repetition about 4 times.

What to say:

You want to use a consistent phrase at first, such as Do you want ____? or want more _____?

Do you want apples?
Do you want peppers?
Oh, you want more goldfish crackers?

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Practice No With Do You Want: : : : : : : :

Offer your child an item you know they dontwant. Lets use a tissue as an example.

Ask Do you want a tissue? as you hold the tissue out.

As your child refuses the item through their behavior, facial expression, or other gesture like pushing away, show them no and say the word no with emphasis to help your child look and listen more closely to the word. Then remove the undesired item.

Practice again with an undesired item in this same way, offering support at first and then less support. Less support might look like you asking Do you want a tissue? while holding out the tissue and then just sharing your head or using a thumbs down without saying the word, giving your child a chance to copy your movement or use it as a hint to say the word no.

Once your child gets the hang of these simple yes/no questions with your support, increase the frequency of your practice and encourage more independence.

Use Simple Yes/no Question Forms

When your child is learning something new, it is helpful to start with a simple structure, and then add variety as they are successful. Start your yes/no question practice with a simple question about something you know your child is interested in and has a preference for. For example, you might start your practice offering food or toy items that you know your child loves and asking a simple question like Do you want _______? while holding out the item. Youll offer lots of support when you first start practice so that your child expresses the answer right away. Check out the guide at the end of this post for examples of how to integrate support following your question to ensure an accurate response each time.

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Types Of Yes/no Questions

When I see or write a goal for working on yes/no questions, I ask, is this a yes/no question regarding a request or yes/no to information. These are very different skills. A child may be able to emphatically say YES, they want a cookie or NO, they dont want peas, but what if you ask them a yes/no question regarding information. Is this a cookie yummy? Can the child answer an informational question with a yes or no?

Asking Yes And No Questions

Answering yes and no questions is an important speech therapy task, but dont forget about asking yes and no questions!

Asking a yes or no question is actually really easy. Watch, Ill do it with one word:

Cookies?

Now you can tell me yes you want cookies, or no you dont want cookies

Lets talk about what made that question a question though. Written down, I used a question mark. Spoken out loud, I would use a rising intonation.

With that in mind, now think about our kids who use AAC devices. If they are only communicating with single words, there is no way to communicate the difference between Cookies! and Cookies?

Kent-Walsh, Binger, and Buchanan suggest that teaching inverted questions is a valuable way to teach AAC users both sentence structure and question asking . Teaching simple question structures helps AAC users be able to actively direct conversation and actions, rather than just passively respond.

The key is that these kids need structured instruction in order to learn and maintain these sentence types.

Similarly, my yes or no question prompts represent simple questions that can be asked from one peer to another. Work on sentence building while asking AND answering functional questions!

Why Learn Yes/no Questions

Yes/No questions are a common concern for parents, educators, and speech therapists. This is because once the child can answer yes and no questions, you will be able to get more information and communicate easily with him.

Children that are not equipped with enough speech to communicate their basic needs and wants suffer from deep frustration and this makes them and their families and environment miserable. Teaching your child, yes and no question is an important milestone in the life of children with autism, speech delay, or special needs in general. It helps drastically improve the quality of life of these children and the level of their speech and communication skills.

This is why speech therapists and ABA therapists and other professionals work long hours to teach children to answer yes and no questions.

The 80 flashcards included in the activity offer many opportunities for your child to learn to answer yes and no questions. These flashcards were designed with incremental difficulty to make learning yes and no questions easy and reduce frustration during the learning process.

Make It A Fun And Silly Game

How to Teach YES / NO Questions to Speech Delayed Children

Ask concrete questions using real objects, making it fun and silly! Begin by modeling the game: grab an apple and ask, is this a shoe?Nooooooooo! Is this a bird? Nooooooo! Is this an apple? YES!. If you have fun modeling this game and laughing along, your child will be engaged and want to participate. After modeling the game a few times, see if your child will begin answering the silly yes/no questions independently. At first, your child may need some help, but practice makes perfect.

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Why Are Yes And No Questions Important In Speech Therapy

Yes or No questions are commonly targeted during speech therapy sessions. This is because once an individual possesses the ability to appropriately respond to yes or no questions, it is possible to communicate with the child in more complex ways. The ability to respond and express preference or disagreement is essential when it comes to reducing the frustration that is caused by the childs inability to express their wants, thoughts, feelings, and needs.

In some cases, Speech and Language pathologists may target yes or no questions regarding general knowledge. Personal questions, however, are often a much more meaningful way to connect and elicit a response. When the therapist asks the individual about themselves, it in turn gives the individual a powerful voice and the opportunity to talk about things that interests and is important to them. Communicating personal preferences can be highly motivating, empowering, and a great functional opportunity to express themselves. Getting started with speech therapy is as simple as scheduling your free introductory call today!

Speech Therapy Goals Objectives

I know every district has different ways it requires their objectives to be written, but typically my district wanted us to reduce either the number required or the percentage of achievement.

Here are a few examples to help get you started.

If we take a sample goal:

Given a story, activity, or classroom discussion, STUDENT will answer 10 yes or no questions with 80% accuracy over 3 out of 4 consecutive sessions.

Reduced Number or Trials Required: The objective might be, Given a story, activity, or classroom discussion, STUDENT will answer 5 yes or no questions with 80% accuracy over 3 out of 4 consecutive sessions.

Reduce Percentage of Accuracy: The objective might be, Given a story, activity, or classroom discussion, STUDENT will answer 10 yes or no questions with 70% accuracy over 3 out of 4 consecutive sessions.

Reduce Difficulty of Task: The objective might be, Given a story, activity, or classroom discussion, STUDENT will answer 5 yes or no questions by pointing to the correct pictures with 80% accuracy over 3 out of 4 consecutive sessions.

Reduce Number of Sessions of Accuracy: The objective might be, Given a story, activity, or classroom discussion, STUDENT will answer 10 yes or no questions with 80% accuracy over 2 out of 4 consecutive sessions.

As speech therapists, you are the specialist and you know your students best though, so just take the goals and simplify them into achievable steps for your specific student.

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Start With Yes Then Move To No

When you want to teach yes no questions to kids with autism, or really any kiddo, its important to practice when you already know your childs likely answer to the question. Kids are more engaged when they are calm and motivated, so starting with practice on questions that you know your child would answer yes to is a great first step.

Stick with a simple question type as we discussed above and use a visual signal to represent yes as you practice. Once you are seeing some momentum with your child answering yes with little or no support, start working on questions that you know your child would say no to. Just as with yes, offer visual support and use simple questions at first-you can switch it up after your child gets the hang of these simple practice moments. See more information on how this looks in action at the end of this post.

Read more: What are speech blocks and stuttering blocks?

What Are Good Yes And No Questions

Yes No Questions for Speech Therapy, Autism

The best yes and no questions for speech therapy are:

One of the best things about using yes and no questions during speech therapy is that these activities allow the therapist to build upon previously attained skills, becoming more complex and challenging as therapy progresses. It is important to make sure that each step is mastered before moving on to the next step. This can mean taking lots of time on each step and repeating the questions/activity until it has been mastered.

Do You Want It?

Show the child an item that they are fond of, such as a beloved toy or delicious snack. Then ask the child, Do you want this? If the child demonstrates that they do want the object model the word yes for the child to repeat. You can encourage the child to nod their head or say the word yes. As the child improves at this activity, you can try nodding your head instead of saying the word, yes to prompt them.

Do You Want It?

Once you have moved through the above activity and the child is consistently able to answer yes, you should move on to working on their ability to respond no. Try engaging in a fun activity with the child, such as blowing bubbles. Then offer them something completely uninteresting, such as a scrunched-up tissue. Ask them Do you want the tissue? then model no just as you did in the previous exercise. Try saying no, no paper and then switch back to the enjoyable activity Do you want to blow bubbles?

Questions About Their Basic Wants and Needs

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Ability Yes/no Questions: Can This Or Does This

In this type of yes and no question, the child is asked if the object or the person on the flashcard has the ability to perform a task.

You can, for instance, ask the child:

Can you eat with your eyelashes?
Can pandas walk on one foot?
Can your tongue reach your eyes?
Can you cook fish on a stove?
Can you clean your hair with a broom?
Can you stretch a wall?
Can you grow hair on a window?
Can you ride a car without a steering wheel?
Can you walk to school with your eyes closed?
Can the sidewalk catch a cold?
Can you make juice with a mixer?
Can you slide on the trampoline?

Does the vacuum cleaner make things hot?
Do you chew juice?
Do clowns help you learn?
Do little chicks get fed by their mother?
Does a lemon have more juice than a peach?
Do bathrooms need to be cleaned?
Do snails move fast?
Do cats play with toys?
Does milk go bad if it isnt refrigerated?
Do we go to the doctor when we are sick?

Keep On Teaching Through Feedback

If your child answers incorrectly, such as by saying no when they mean yes, respond accordingly. Emphasize the meaning of their answer so they can see where they went wrong.

Be sure to end on a successful, positive note with each practice.

Model yes/no questions throughout the day so that your child can see/hear this language by others in their world. This will help them learn through observation alongside their own direct practice time.

___________________________

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Yes No Questions Speech Therapy Autism Worksheets For Nonverbal Students

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Also included in

WH Questions for Autism | Speech Therapy WorksheetsSpecial Education and Autism Worksheets Packet includes What, Who, Where, When, Which, Yes No Questions, . These are fabulous activities for non-verbal students with autism. Bonus File Washing Hands Visual Posters and Activity. Click here for Wh Qu13

Yes No Questions Speech Therapy Worksheets for Autism Set 1These resources provide great materials for teaching yes/no questions across a variety of categories and actions. Your students will benefit from these worksheets! They are great for Autism, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, Kindergarten and preschool students. Bonus File True or False Workshe20

Special Education Activities and WorksheetsThis pack includes a variety of activities and worksheets that work great with nonverbal students with autism, ESL students and kindergarten. These printables use real life photos and, if laminated, can be used over and over in the classroom or during Therapy Sessions. If you are interested to get a12

Autism Activities and WorksheetsThis pack includes a variety of activities and worksheets that work great with nonverbal students with autism, ESL students and kindergarten. These printables use real life photos and, if laminated, can be used over and over in the classroom or during A B A and occupational therapy.If you are intere10View Bundle

So How Do We Teach Children To Respond To Yes/no

What Questions and Yes/No Questions for Speech and Language Therapy

Yes/No with a request or refusal: When teaching yes/no in response to a question like, do you want a cookie the following is a possible scenario.

Using a highly reinforcing item, ask a child if they would like a cookie, including YES in the model. For example, do you want a cookie, YES? or you could say, YES do you want a cookie. We are prompting the correct answer. This is a form of errorless teaching.

If the item reinforces, they may be saying YES because they know this is the correct response. It may be more of a rote answer.

I do multiple trainings with a YES item until the child responds with a verbal gesture or a picture choice of yes. Some children may pick this up in a few trials, and some may need many attempts.

Once I feel they understand the concept of yes, meaning that they want and get an item, I introduce the foil.

I introduce NO with a foil or item that I know the child does not want. I would use the same question form, Nodo you want the washcloth or Do you want a washcloth, NO? If I were to say, do you want the washcloth? and the child responded YES, I would give them the washcloth. It is important to know that the child is asking for what they want! Yes/No can become a rote response like want,please, or thank you. It can lose its meaning if we are not careful in our teaching.

I do this activity over multiple sessions, depending on the child until they start responding with a YES.

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